著者

森 久美子 福田 恭介 松尾 太加志 志堂寺 和則 早見 武人

出版者

福岡県立大学人間社会学部

雑誌

福岡県立大学人間社会学部紀要 (ISSN:13490230)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.23, no.2, pp.33-44, 2015-02

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Pupil dilation is mediated by the inhibition of the parasympathetic Edinger-Westphal oculomotor and the facilitation of sympathetic ophthalmic nerve activity. That emotional and sensory events provoke pupillary dilation is well documented. We examined the relationship between pupillary response and depression-anxiety among university students through affective word presentation. Twenty-five students were classified into high (12students) or low (13 students) groups via all of the following-BDI (Beck Depression Inventory), depressive scheme, and STAI (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory). The students individually and voluntarily participated in an experiment whereby their right eye was recorded while affective words (positive, neutral, and negative) consisting of two Chinese-characters were presented successively on a computer monitor. Participants were instructed to determine whether they personally considered each words to be pleasant or unpleasant while pressing a key to the next affective word. Reaction time and pupil dilation were measured. Reaction time was found to be significantly longer in cases of neutral words than in cases of either positive or negative words.Pupil dilation appeared approximately one second after negative word onset, and approximately one second before neutral word onset. No significant difference in pupillary response and reaction time was observed between high-depressive or anxiety-affected groups. These results suggest that pupils may dilate due to the sympathetic activation associated with negative affection, and also by the information processing load associated with the determination of neutral words.